Russia bans Canadian public broadcaster CBC

MOSCOW

Russia has closed the Moscow office of Canadian public broadcaster CBC, revoking the accreditation of all its correspondents in response to a Canadian ban on the Russian state-owned channel RT.

"We have repeatedly warned about this. We have said that unilateral restrictive measures that violate the principles of freedom of speech and hinder the normal work of the Russian media will not remain unanswered," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday.

Zakharova added that "it should be clear to everyone" that Russia's reaction is "inevitable" and will be applied in every similar case.

"In this regard, it was decided to introduce retaliatory measures in connection with Canada's actions, namely, the closure of the Moscow office of the Canadian State Broadcasting Corporation CBC, including the cancellation of accreditations and Russian visas of its journalists," she said.

She added that the decision was made in response to the decision of the Canadian authorities to ban broadcasts of the channels RT and RT France.

On March 18 the Canadian Radio and Television Commission announced that it banned broadcasts of Russian RT TV channels in English and French in the country, with Canadian broadcasters no longer allowed to distribute their signals in Canada.

The commission said in a statement that it believes further broadcasting in Canada by the channels "does not meet the public interest."

In the runup to and since Russia’s war on Ukraine began on Feb. 24, a host of countries have banned RT, citing sanctions as well as calling the channel a source of propaganda and misinformation.